Troubles of Rodney
by i-escaped-reality
Summary: After Tao of Rodney, Rodney begins to develop feelings for a certain Dr Weir. How to handle these feelings however, is one thing that McKay is not an expert on. SPOILERS FOR TAO OF RODNEY. Please ignore my complete lack of original thought when it comes t
1. Chapter 1

Title: Troubles of Rodney

Pairing: Rodney/ Elizabeth

Summary: After the events of Tao of Rodney, Rodney reflects on his possible feelings for one Dr Weir, and just how or if he should act on them.

Disclaimer: I gladly don't own Rodney's ego, but sadly neither do I own his brain, or any other part of him or any of the other characters in this story! 

"_Rodney, you're a good person. Know that we love you."_

"_You love me? Really?"_

He stirred in his sleep, remembering the events of the past week.

"…_And you love me"_

"_What? I never..."_

"_You so did! Yeah, I may not be able to understand this new math I created. But I distinctly remember that you said you love me."_

"_Actually, I said we love you and…"_

"_And, what? You were just saying that because you thought I was dying?"_

"_No, I said it bec…"_

"_See! You love me! It's true. You've said it. Now I know. I've always suspected it. In fact, I've always noticed that there's been a, um, indefinable and yet magical chemistry between us… that I think I covered in chapter ten."_

Rodney slowly turned in his sleep, gradually becoming conscious. He blinked several times and, wiping the sleep away, he grabbed his watch off of the bedside table holding it close to his groggy eyes. 6am. He placed the item back and stretched out on his back staring up at the ceiling, still half between wake and sleep.

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After convincing her to join him for an 'afternoon snack', they had made their way to the cafeteria, which at this time in the afternoon was always pretty dead. He had grabbed a lunch tray, piling on a few things that were still remaining from the lunch rush, while Elizabeth poured herself a mug of Coffee. She then followed him out to a table on the balcony that was illuminated in the warm afternoon light.

They sat there for a while bantering about the pros and cons of Sheppard using the ascension machine and turning himself into a pool of protoplasm, and as they talked, and she laughed at his witty comments and comical John death scenarios, and possible powers that he would have liked to keep, he noticed something new. That he hadn't really seen as being there before.

Intelligent strong women had always attracted him, and Elizabeth Weir was nothing if not that. He knew that when they had first started working together, in Antarctica and then here in Atlantis, he had had a small crush on her, and who wouldn't, but he hadn't thought about it for quite some while. However, at that moment, just sitting there, watching her talk and smile, he saw something different in the way her face lit up and her eyes sparkled as she spoke.

In fact, he was now starting to regret asking her out to lunch, not due to any dislike of her but quite the opposite. For the past few days, he hadn't been able to get the woman out of his mind.

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Rodney sat up in Bed and swung his feet out to place them on the cold Lantean floor. He rested his head in his hands, and at once dreaded and was excited about the morning ahead; A two hour meeting with the most beautiful woman on Atlantis. One who just happened to be his boss.

A/N: So, what did you think? There is more to come, especially if you review, but please be kind. I promise the writing in the next part will be better, it's always harder to get something started than to continue it:)


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so very much to those of you who reviewed, I really appreciate it. This second chapter is also not very long, but hopefully that doesn't matter too much. So enjoy :)

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One and a half hours down, thirty minutes to go. Rodney had survived the briefing thus far by studying his laptop intently, and being unusually quiet for himself. He knew it was unfair to his team and to Elizabeth that they didn't get to hear the input of an intellect such as his own, but the worry that he in fact would not be able to speak kept him to as few comments as possible. He had been warding off peoples suspicions be interjecting acknowledging sounds when he thought appropriate, and so far it seemed to be working.

Rodney knew he shouldn't have been acting so pathetically school girlish, and he couldn't prevent it, because quite honestly, he didn't know the reason.

_You've been working with her for nearly three years, why in hell is this happening to you _His subconscious berated him. _It's only Elizabeth for goodness sakes, just another day, just an average briefing. _Only Elizabeth. For some reason that didn't seem to quite fit. She couldn't be described in such a way that diminished her being, and yet it was true. This was just his friend Elizabeth, so why was he was perspiring and why was his heart beating quite this quickly all of a sudden? _Damn! _Acknowledging the rate of his pulse had not been a good idea as it now seemed intent on beating in his ears so loud that it was blocking out what it was that was being said.

Thump thump.

Thump thump.

Thump thump.

"Shut up." Rodney barked under his breath. Then realizing that he was telling his own chest to be quiet, he looked up sheepishly. Four sets of eyes were looking back at him in concern. One green pair in particular locked directly with his from across the table.

"Oh, um, sorry." He stumbled thinking of an excuse. "My, um, laptop. Humming is a bit annoying. Headache." He gestured vaguely at his head and smiled uneasily hoping that his lie would pass.

"That's why I use these." John stated helpfully, holding up a pad and biro with a smug look on his face, then proceeded to tap the pen on the table for emphasis.

"Yes, quite.' Rodney replied

He looked back over to Elizabeth and was grateful to see that Johns little comment had ridden her of the worried look, however it was now replaced with her patented stern amusement, which he didn't really like seeing directed at himself. He looked into her warm green eyes a moment longer, making sure it couldn't be counted as gazing, and then quickly went back to his mission of trying to dissolve completely into the screen of his laptop.

As soon as the meeting was over Rodney pushed his chair away from the table said a very quick goodbye and hurried out of the room with his head down. What he failed to notice was Dr Weirs confused look following after him.

Elizabeth shook her head and began gathering up her papers from the desk before her.

"What do you think is troubling Dr McKay?" Teyla enquired of nobody in particular, as the rest of the team were still collecting their things at a more leisurely pace.

Doctor Weir again looked up and glanced out of the door in the direction in which Rodney had… well, it was probably best described as 'fled'.

"Rodney? He's always like that!" John interjected non-chantilly.

"You did not notice anything," she paused thinking of the correct word. "Odd, in his behavior." She finished as the appropriate adjective came to her.

"Well…he was a bit jumpy." John provided. "But that usually means he just hasn't had his sugar fix this morning." He smiled to himself.

"Maybe he had a nightmare about a flying killer lemon last night." Ronon supplied with a grin. A beat, and then the two men burst out laughing.

"Ronon." Teyla chided, giving him a look like a parent reprimanding a small child. Ronon had the good sense to stop laughing, but kept a small smirk plastered on his face as he left the room.

"Perhaps it was nothing then. Goodbye Elizabeth. John." She nodded to each of them in turn and then followed after the retreating Satedan.

John watched them go and then turned to bid farewell to Elizabeth when he saw the worried look still written over her face.

"I think I might go check on Rodney." She supplied as she caught him staring.

"Okay 'Lizabeth," John conceded, "But I can bet you all he needs is a bag of jelly beans and he'll be back to his usual pompous self." He sent her a smile and left Elizabeth alone in the room mulling over her thoughts.

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A/N: So, what do you think? I know nothing much happened, but it's really still only the build up I guess. Any ideas on what should happen when Elizabeth goes to find Rodney, I'll be happy to hear them. Please Review!


	3. Chapter 3

After the meeting Elizabeth had returned to her office intent on finishing up some work before she began her search for her baffling chief of Science. She always found it much easier to go into a conference with a clear mind, and she assumed that getting Rodney to open up about his feelings would be an equally difficult task.

She had written about a paragraph of coherent work before she had completely submitted to pondering over Rodney's frame of mind. It wasn't just his distractedness in the meeting either, but she had been noticing strange behavior from him for a while now, _ever since…since_. She tried to pinpoint when this strangeness had begun, and suddenly it clicked in her mind. _Since he had been affected be that Ancient 'ascension machine'_. A thought flicked through her mind that perhaps she should contact Carson to check for any after effects, but that seemed a little drastic just yet. Instead she gave up on her ill attempt at work and decided to hunt down her wayward scientist now instead of later. As she moved to shut down her laptop however, she noticed an as-of-yet unread file on her desktop, which stopped her actions. She slipped back into her seat and her cursor hovered over the file, entitled simply "Elizabeth".

"_Well, you've taken a lot of crap as the leader of this expedition and I just thought someone should leave a record of all the good things you've done – everything you've done right."_

" _Everything I do is on record for review."_

" _Oh, yes, I know, I know. I just thought that I would have somewhat of a unique perspective that other people might benefit from."_

She thought back to the conversation she'd had with Rodney when he had handed the file to her, and wondered why she had not yet read it. She'd thought it had been due to the lack of free time to simply sit down and read it, but now she was starting to wonder if there was another reason. That the trepidation in knowing what Rodney really thought of her had stopped her from looking it over. After all, he had only seen fit to present it to her when he believed he would not be around long enough to see any consequences from it. She thought about it a moment longer, and then double clicked on the file and skipped forward to chapter 10.

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For Rodney, swamping himself in work was normally not just a distraction but a therapeutic process. While working on some scientific problem in his lab, apart from the obvious exclusion of when the city needed saving, he could submerge himself in work and forget the outside world. Unfortunately for him, today it didn't seem to be working. In fact, he had been so distracted by his own thoughts that he hadn't even been able to figure out which work it was that needed to be done, let alone even try to attempt it.

After making his hasty escape from the-meeting-that-would-not-end, he had walked, almost run, straight to his private asylum of a lab to hopefully be swallowed up by his desk. Unfortunately when he had arrived he had taken one look at his office and decided that it was the last place he wanted to be, and had almost immediately turned round and retreated through the automatic doors.

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By the time Elizabeth actually got around to tracking down her puzzle of a CSO, it was already late afternoon. She had tried contacting him over his headset, but had received no response, but she knew that while working on something important, Rodney tended to neglect that piece of technology, or either just ignore it altogether. She decided to check in the commissary before traipsing all the way down to his lab, as it was always likely that he was hiding out in there, often angering John by commandeering the last turkey sandwich. However as she arrived in the large, tabled room she found it practically deserted spare for Zelenka and another scientist playing chess in the far corner. She nodded a greeting across the room at Radek, and was about to turn to leave, when an Idea struck her and she headed to the kitchen area instead.

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When Dr Weir eventually located the scientist, she founds him sitting alone on a sheltered balcony on one of the lower levels of the city. She stood behind him for a while studying him and the vast body of water stretching out beyond him. It was strange to find Rodney in a place of such calm. She watched him in his pensive unguarded state for a while longer and then decided to make her presence known.

Elizabeth mimicked his position on the balcony; sat on the edge with feet dangling over the ledge and leaned forward on the sturdy ancient railing. She looked over at him and waited for him to respond.

When he made no indication that he knew she was there and simply began studying his hands intently, she gave in.

"So, come here often?" Wow that sounded bad, like a cheesy pick up line but negotiator extraordinaire was at a loss for words to fit the situation. However it did work to some purpose in that it drew a small smile from Rodney. She was about to attempt another angle to start him talking when he opened up.

"I need to tell you something and it's important that you just listen," Rodney looked straight at her, "Okay?"

She nodded gently.

"I know that you didn't mean what you said but it really well, um, got to me and…well the thing is." He paused, thinking carefully before he continued. "I know I don't always put myself across as being the most affectionate of people, and that may be in part to some insecurities that I may have, even if I never would admit that to anyone other than you…but, well, the thing is…I…Love you"

He said the last bit so quietly and inwardly that Elizabeth barely heard him, and so by the time it had registered and she was about to attempt some kind of response in her slightly off kilter state, Rodney had already continued ploughing on with his confession. "You see, the other day when you asked me what kind of opinion I really had of myself, it got me to thinking about a lot of things, and then when you told me that you loved me…Even if it was simply an offhand comment, or a last minute thing that you thought should be said to somebody who was in my position, it really got to me and…well, ever since then I haven't been able to get you out of my thoughts. Which is awfully inconvenient I'll have you know." Rodney finally finished, trying to look straight at Elizabeth but not quite meeting her gaze.

"Quite right too." Elizabeth stated. Her Diplomatic skills allowing her to recover from Rodney's power ramble faster than one might have thought possible. She smiled softly and met Rodney's eyes as he turned a shocked expression on her. "Sorry." She apologized

"Jellybean?" she offered forward a bag she'd held concealed in her jacket pocket.

It seemed to break all the tension that had built up in Rodney and he actually let out a small laugh. He looked into her eyes for the first time since she had arrived and smiled warmly. Rodney took a jellybean, very carefully avoiding any that resembled a 'citrusy colour'.

"I read your book." She added

"Really?" Rodney was back on the verge of being uncomfortable

"Well, chapter 10 anyway." Elizabeth explained. "And I think I have decided that nothing you do will be able to annoy me for quite some time." She said jokingly and continued smiling at him.

Rodney smiled back at her contentedly, and forgot the exact reason why he had been so worried this morning. Doctor Weir may have been an intimidating force to contend with, one that you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of, But this was Elizabeth. Simply Elizabeth.

She smiled back at him and offered him another jellybean which he accepted warmly.

The End

A/N: Okay, so I'm terrible at endings, I know, I'm sorry. I've had so much college work and my brain has just been frazzeled to the point where I can't write anymore, but I thought this story and all you lovely people who reviewed deserved an ending. I hope you liked it, review if you so desire, but please be kind thanks :)


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